In a well-known letter of 25 October 1518 to the Nuremburg patrician and humanist Willibald Pirckheimer, Ulrich von Hutten expressed his personal optimism and his hope for the humanist cause: "O seculum! O literae! Iuvat vivere, etsi quiescere nondum iuvat, Bilibalde. Vigent studia, florent ingenia" (Oh century! Oh letters! It is a joy to be alive. It is not a time to keep quiet, Willibald. Studies thrive and minds flourish). Hutten cited the achievements of his humanist friends -- Desiderius Erasmus, Johannes Oekolampadius, Guillaume Budé, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, Guillaume Cop, and Joannes Ruellius -- as evidence for the impending victory over their Scholastic opponents. Hutten's own accomplishments as a humanist had been recognized the previous year, when he was crowned poet laureate of the empire. But Hutten was shifting his literary efforts from humanism to the promotion of Martin Luther's religious reform. In April 1519 Erasmus...